the first principles of civil government re-
garded and believed to be the government of
the country.
Many things have been said in this debate
touching this war. Mr. Lincoln has pro-
nounced upon it. The gentleman from How-
ard himself (Mr. Sands) has this morning
pronounced upon it. Is there a man in this
convention who believes that this war is now
what it was three years ago? The words
read by my colleague this morning show
what it was three years ago. And what is it
now? What a spectacle was presented to this
nation three years ago? The tocsin of war
had been sounded. Guns bad been fired.—
Blood had been shed. The flag of the United
States had been fired upon. The southern
States had gone out of this nation. There
was a convention called in Virginia which
met in the city of Richmond. There
they sat, with hearts that beat as true to the
Union of this land, as devoted to the consti-
tution of this Union, as firm as the everlasting
hills of their own Blue Ridge. They sat
there, constituted of a large majority of Union
men. While their sister States had seceded ;
while their brothers had raised the red hand
and war was raging, they sat there under the
flag of the stars and stripes. Here comes the
warning that ought to have been heeded, the
counsel of the father of his country: "Let
there be no change by usurpation, for though
this, in one instance, may be the instrument
of good, it is the customary weapon by which
free governments are destroyed."
That was the spectacle. When that Vir-
ginia convention saw the proclamation from
the executive chair going upon the wings of
the lightning, calling for an army of 75,000
men to march through a sister State, what
was the result? As one man that convention
dissolved, and Virginia united her faith for
weal or woe with her sister States. And will
any man tell me that he believes that there re-
mains between the Potomac river and the Sa-
bine any of that feeling which kept Virginia,
Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas clinging
fondly even as the child to the last hope of
life in its expiring parent? Does he believe
any of that feeling yet remains in those
States? No, sir; it is gone; it is trampled
to death,
The blood that flows down the mountain
sides, and that is running red from the source
to the mouth of the rivers, attests that there
is no Union feeling there. This convention
knows it; the people know it; the president
knows it. And now, sir, lei me read what
Mr. Lincoln said on the day before the extra
session of Congress of 1861 adjourned. He
said:
"Mr, Mallory, this war, so far as I have
anything to do with it, is carried on on
the idea that there is a Union sentiment in
these States, which, set free from the control
now held over it by the presence of the con- |
federate or rebel power, will be sufficient to
replace these States in the Union. If lam
mistaken in this, if there is no such sentiment
there, if the people of those States are deter-
mined with unanimity, or with a feeling ap-
proaching unanimity, that their States shall
not be members of this confederacy, it is be-
yond the power of the people of the other
States to force them to remain in the Unlion ;
and," said he, "in that contingency—in the
contingency that there is not. that sentiment
there—this war is not only an error, it is a
crime.
Mr. Lincoln, sir, has solemnly declared that
this war is a crime.
Mr. PUGH. I rise with a great deal of hesi-
tation to take any part in this discussion, 1
had hoped we should proceed at once to vote
upon this section; but inasmuch as there has
been considerable said upon the other side of
the question, I should not feel at all satisfied
if I did not give some reasons why I support
the amendment of the gentleman from Balti-
more city (Mr. Stirling,) inasmuch also, as 1
have watched the course of this discussion,
and in my judgment the whole gist of the
matter has been either avoided or forgotten
by the two gentlemen from Somerset (Mr.
Jones and Mr. Dennis) ) and as all the remarks
that have been made upon the other side seem
to have been made under the impression that
we are living in 1861, or at least that the cir-
cumstances which now control us are similar
to those which controlled the people in the
year 1861.
1 submit that in my judgment the gist of
this matter is right here. It is a question of
our existence as a people. It is a question of
our existence as one of the States of the Uni-
ted States. This is a time of war. It is a
time when the matter must be decided by the
arbitrament of the sword. There is no other
way in which it can be decided. Gentlemen
talk about the constitution and the laws. They
refer us to the laws of our own State, to the
laws which should govern Maryland, and by
which 1, as one Marylander, am perfectly will-
ing to be governed under peace circumstances.
They refer to these laws and recall those old
times, when they know perfectly well that
but yesterday native-born Marylanders were
in our midst devastating the land, invading
the rights of the people of the State of Mary-
land, scattering destruction with fire and
sword. What class of people were we, and
what were we worth, if under these circum-
stances we stood here in this hall and talked
about this fact as though it did not exist, and
treated these people as if they were willing to
come and sit down in our midst under the
aegis of the constitution, to be governed by
the laws which have been made for the gov-
ernment of Marylanders ?
The gist of the matter, as I said, has been
entirely overlooked by these gentlemen.—
Their remarks, submitted with ability, would |
